I
appreciate Ezra Levant. He says it as it is without regard to the politically
correct. I would probably cite him much
more frequently if I did not fear losing you, my readers, who may be more
gentle in your preferences. I encourage
you to tell me what you think of him.
However,
today I turn to someone who is more gentle in his expression and who is found
in mainstream press of the Vancouver Sun,
but who tells the same story. I refer to Matthew Fisher. I see his name and
column quite often in that paper but have not read him all that much. But his
write up of September 12, 2015 is worth noting.
Of course, many things happened
since, especially the Paris debacle of a couple of weeks ago, but also in other
countries with other races to which main stream folks don’t pay as much
attention—Nigeria’s Boko Haram
continues its onslaughts of bombing attacks in various cities and states,
killing innocent people by the dozens at a time, often mostly Muslims; Lebanon
just had its turn as did Baghdad. ISIS, of course, doesn’t let up on its tradition
of extreme violence, cruelty and chaos.
So,
what does Fisher have to tell us? His
title says it all: “Refugees a mix of the persecuted and the
opportunistic.” He begins by reminding
us of the siege of Vienna back in 1683, the last time Muslims tried to enter
Europe in such great numbers. That time they came as war mongers; this time
they come to escape war, most of them anyway. In the 1970s and 80s they came to
Western Europe as temporary guest workers, mostly people with little education
and few needed skills. We know how bumpy
the ride has been and still is for them as well as their hosts one or two
generations later.
Today
they come as a mix, many of them highly skilled professionals who can afford
the $5,000 or more for the ride. Many of that crowd are taking advantage of the
refugee phenomenon; they pretend to be refugees, even though they come from
places that do not generate refugees so much as economic migrants. They are
economic immigrants no different from myself and my parental family in the
early 1950s, except that today’s economic migrants are often better educated
and more wealthy.
The West can use these people, no doubt about it. But I am
not so sure that the West should accept them so readily. Their move to the West
represents a terrible brain drain on their home countries who have paid for
their training. Accepting them in the West implies reversing the results of whatever "foreign aid" the West has poured into these countries--a plain contradiction. But what's a contradiction when it's in your favour? Remember that earlier post in which I described the human race as contradictory by nature? That's just the way we are. We just paper it over with lofty oratory.
Then,
of course, there are the genuine refugees, the ones who rightly receive all our
attention and compassion. Fisher met them in person during his visits to
Zaatari Refugee Camp in Jordan near the Syrian border. He describes the place
as a “cauldron of trauma, despair and opportunism.” Those he met there were
“genuine refugees,” who “had horrific tales about barbarities they had seen…and
awful news stories about life in the camp, where rape and other crimes were
rife and many teenage girls had been kidnapped for sold into marriage. They
were largely from hardscrabble, war-wrecked cities such as Daraa and Aleppo.” I am very happy with the reports I read of
many Canadian organizations, both religious and secular, including my own
church, who are scrambling to find ways and money to adopt families or an
individual or two. That is true
compassion that I—and, I hope, you, my readers—share and participate in.
But
then, at the end of his column, Fisher gently turns to the politically
incorrect. I quote: “Westerners should remember that an unintended consequence
of this unprecedented migration might be a step toward Osama bin Laden’s dream
that Islam will get its revenge against the West through immigration and
birthrate.” Osama shared this dream with
other Muslim strategists, including Ghadaffi, who thundered it out, “We shall
overcome you via immigration and birth” (not exact quote). Or that Baghdad sheikh over a century ago who warned the West that one day they will have
good cause to rue their haughty, oppressive and secular imperialistic policies
in the so-called Middle East.
Western
Europe especially may be near that time with this impossible influx, though I
still see little signs of Western regret, recognition, understanding or
agreement. As far as most Westerners are
concerned, it’s still all those stupid Muslims who create all this chaos, while
we have benignly sought to liberate them from their oppressive
stupidities. Can you imagine such
blindness and, yes, stupidity? It’s
beyond my comprehension. I am dumbfounded and highly embarrassed! May God forgive us and turn this all around.
